Filling hose for spare air clone, where to buy?

[lowwall]

The SMACO hand pump requires lubrication with some kind of oil, probably silicone. My guess is the interior of the tank is contaminated with the oil.

Even a real Spare Air is a sketchy proposition. A clone brings the sketchiness up another order of magnitude. What does your friend use this for? Is a real pony tank a possibility?

 

[happy-diver]

Do not judge a book by your own cover, however in this case, rubber smells = friction = heat = burning

Did you ever burn yourself with high pressure air

 

[Agro]

The SMACO hand pump requires lubrication with some kind of oil, probably silicone. My guess is the interior of the tank is contaminated with the oil.

Even a real Spare Air is a sketchy proposition. A clone brings the sketchiness up another order of magnitude. What does your friend use this for? Is a real pony tank a possibility?

He gives the spare air clone to his kids, the dive in shallow waters. He asked the kids if rubber smell is disturbing, they said no.

Contaminated tank: but why the hell doesn't it smell at low preussure?

 

[L13]

He gives the spare air clone to his kids, the dive in shallow waters. He asked the kids if rubber smell is disturbing, they said no.

Contaminated tank: but why the hell doesn't it smell at low preussure?

Never breath air from any tank that has any smell at any pressure.

The entire system should be disassembled and cleaned prior to any further use.

Spare air tanks are too small to be safe as backups to standard scuba, and without proper training could be very dangerous even when used to play around in the shallows (elevated risk of lung barotrama on ascent without training).

Make sure your friend has thoroughly briefed his kids not to hold their breath at any time while using the spare air clones, and stops using the system at all until it is properly cleaned.

 

[lowwall]

He gives the spare air clone to his kids, the dive in shallow waters. He asked the kids if rubber smell is disturbing, they said no.

Contaminated tank: but why the hell doesn't it smell at low preussure?

It doesn't smell because the oil or whatever other contaminants are creating the odor is liquid or solid at low pressures, but vaporizes (turns into gas) at high pressures. Think of how a diesel engine works.

This is extremely unhealthy. But at least it will kill them slowly, unlike a gas embolism from breathing compressed air underwater and not maintaining an open airway while ascending. It only takes a few feet of ascent to rupture a lung.

TELL YOUR FRIEND TO STOP THIS NOW. He has been extremely lucky his kids have not been seriously injured by this practice.

 

[Gone for diving]

I had a closer look to the hose. It fits 200 and 300 bar valves. Spare Air clone is 200 bar cylinder. So I can fill 300 bar into a 200 bar cylinder.

The air in the Spare Air clone heavily smells like rubber but it only does so at 50-200 bar, it does not smell at 0-50 bar. I filled and emptied 10 times, still smells at high pressure. Amazing. Why does it smell only at high pressure?

So is the smell coming when you use the hand pump? Or fill with the tank?

Hand pump is probably created the smell because a certain stage is hot or not working correctly....

If filling with the tank. Possibly filling way to fast creates tons of heat....
That pcp fittings has an oring on it... possibly its getting hot and giving the smell.

You probably should remove the reg off the bottle and make sure its clean inside. If not clean it.

 

[Agro]

First filling was by hand pump, then filling by hose from scuba tank only.

Yes perhaps it's a good idea to tell him he shall clean the cylinder. I do not understand how any contamination can get into cylinder. Hand pump is oil free. I do not believe any o-ring might have produced this. O-rings are commonly used in regulators and so on, they do not react like that. Filling hose was a little bit hot but not extremely, no problem for an o-ring.

 

[high_order1]

I know a little about those hand pumps.

Many were not shipped with the coolant loaded in them.

They didn't care about air quality because it was originally designed to power a tool (a pellet gun), and because it would wear out faster making them buy more product.

There are videos online that demonstrate how to disassemble most versions of those hand pumps. It will need to be cleaned and then correctly lubed and the coolant added to the innermost chamber.

You may not be aware, but compressed gas pumps create intense heat as part of the process. If that heat isn't dealt with, it can ruin the valves and surfaces of the pump. Also, on those hand pumps, you are supposed to stop briefly at the top and bottom of the stroke, just jamming it quickly, especially at the top of the fill can add a lot of heat the pump wasn't really designed for.